How often you hit PLATEAU?

joonna

Hi Everyone!

I'm entering my 2nd month of healthy eating and exercising and before I expect to hit my first plateau, I'd like to know how often you guys would hit a plateau and how you'd fight it off?

Thank You!!

LastFighter

Ive hit 3-4 plateaus but you just continue on trucking through. Increase intensity and weight. Usually what happens after a 2-3 week plateau is I will all of a sudden lose 4 lbs in a week.

mbakken90

I usually plateau because i seem to do the same workout over and over and over again. I've decided to do about 3 different workouts a week over 5 workout periods. Your body won't get too used to it. Also changing up your meals. It's really discouraging when you hit that plateau...but you have to keep pushing through! you can do it

Shaqueta

I've had 2 thus far and its 2-4 weeks for me then a sudden drop. My weight even went up 2-5 lbs before it went down (TOM). I tried to keep eating right, increased water switched up my workout routine and things just took their own toll. Slowly but surely the weight comes off. I was loosing inches over pounds. The inches r more important to me than the pounds.

cmj516

I think it depends on what you're doing. You can't expect to do the same workout everyday and keep getting amazing results because your body will get "better" at doing it, so you'll burn less calories. What you can do to avoid this is to switch what you do, every time you workout, or at least once a month. I try to do something different every day of the week, and when it starts to feel easier, and you should know, just do it harder (more time, more weight or more intensity)!!

everet36

I don't because I'm losing the weight slowly. I expect to quit losing weight when my body decides that the weight it is at is desirable.

CombatVet_Armywife

I'm still struggling with my 1st plateau, but it's lasted for over 2 months now. I haven't experienced this 2-3 week plateau with the sudden drop as everyone else has suggested, but I am still fighting through it. I changed up my exercise routine (doing P90X) and increased my calorie intake since I've been told these are typically the 2 common factors of a plateau. 3 1/2 weeks in and no change as of yet. But those would be my recommendations, change up your exercises, change up your calories, and make sure you're drinking plenty of water!

NoAdditives

I've been at this since October and I haven't really yet because my trainer changes up my exercise routine every 6-8 weeks and I had been experimenting with my daily calorie goal. I have had some ups and downs because things were crazy between Thanksgiving and the New Year, but that was from a lack of exercise, not a plateau.

NatalieWinning

I'm loosing weight slowly, a pound a week. I hit a few stalls and rested more, ate differently, or more. Stall foiled.

I hit a major plateau right before Christmas, that was 29 pounds down and something like 6 months in. But I pushed through, changed thing up like people said here, and then the switch flipped and I started having expected results again. Last week I actually ate very close to my goal weight after adding on exercise calories and noticed that eating back my calories really speeded things up! I lost 2 pounds instead of my usual one with much less fuss. Don't be afraid to eat those exercise calories! (disclamer: I have a heart rate monitor, so I think my calories burned are fairly accurate-ish).

denisec26

ive been stuck in a plateau forever. when i first started is was 2 pounds a month for like two months..then 1 pound a month..i change up my exercise as much as i can and i even tried different diets to change my eating but no luck. if you find something that works for u..def. let me know!

Hammock

I have been reading about your plateaus and I have not hit mine yet but I am only in my 4th week. So far I lost 9 pounds but I know that is too fast. I was not eating any of my exercise calories until halfway through the third week when I suddenly got very hungry and weird feeling. I am now definitely eating some of my exercise calories -- not all -- and will see what happens this week.

One of the things I am wondering about it this -- and it ties into the plateau problem. When you have lost, say, half the weight you intend to lose, I wonder if you should go back to your original entry and refigure your stats again, using your "new" weight? That might change things a little and enable those next pounds to come off more easily. I know that when i was omn Weight Watchers the number of "points" you could eat became fewer when you were ten pounds from goal. Just a suggestion.

tenessaa

I too will go several weeks only loosing a minimum amount of pounds or none at all. I just came through the holidays and only lost 2 lbs in a month, then this week I decided to drop my calories a little and added in an extra zumba class. I lost 4.2 lbs this week! This seems to be a trend for me.

SimonLondon

I had just 1 in the year I was losing weight and it lasted a month. The thing was although the weight was static my waistline was still shrinking o.O

I was changing exercises frequently and I believe I spent that month building more muscle which was negating the weight loss.

If you can afford it invest in a good scale which gives you a lot of stats. Mine gives me weight, Fat %, Water %, BMI and body fat weight. Although my weight plateau'd the other stats were still dropping so I wasn't overly bothered by the weight during that month.

Scales just showing your weight can never give you a true reflection of what's going on. Measure your waist and get some better scales and I'm sure you'll see things are still happening.

m0xiecat

@ Brenda I've heard Tony Horton say that p90x should really be P120x for women. It takes longer for the female body to adjust and develop muscle. So if you are enjoying it, try to stick it out and pay more attention to your inches. I was doing Chalene Extreme and it was the same way. I didn't lose weight for a long time but I was toning.

lacroyx

2x in the past year. started @ 485 lbs. down to 440ish lbs. hit that plateau. took a week off, no excercise, ate enough calories. to maintain. broke plateau started losing again. didn't plateau again till I reached 410 lbs. I then fulcuated for almost a month 401 lbs-411 lbs. again took week off excercise and calories. I then went back to losing.

NatalieWinning

I have been reading about your plateaus and I have not hit mine yet but I am only in my 4th week. So far I lost 9 pounds but I know that is too fast. I was not eating any of my exercise calories until halfway through the third week when I suddenly got very hungry and weird feeling. I am now definitely eating some of my exercise calories -- not all -- and will see what happens this week.

One of the things I am wondering about it this -- and it ties into the plateau problem. When you have lost, say, half the weight you intend to lose, I wonder if you should go back to your original entry and refigure your stats again, using your "new" weight? That might change things a little and enable those next pounds to come off more easily. I know that when i was omn Weight Watchers the number of "points" you could eat became fewer when you were ten pounds from goal. Just a suggestion.

That's a good point. If you changed your lifestyle your baseline has to change occasionally. MFP does use your current weight in all things, but your baseline of average daily activity lifestyle should be modified here and there. I started with "moderate activity" and 6 months later and over half way done loosing I still think I fit into the "moderate activity" level except exercise went up. I log the things that I feel are in addition to the "usual activity" like actual workouts. Where in the beginning I was logging much of the activity I would leave off now, eg: housecleaning.

kwardklinck

Increase your exercise and increase the calories for a little bit. The other thing I've done to kick my body back into gear is just take a day without counting calories. This seems to rev up my metabolism a little bit as well. Also taking a break from exercise 3-5 days seems to do it as well. I think it helps your muscles to get rid of the water.

javamom

I have been reading about your plateaus and I have not hit mine yet but I am only in my 4th week. So far I lost 9 pounds but I know that is too fast. I was not eating any of my exercise calories until halfway through the third week when I suddenly got very hungry and weird feeling. I am now definitely eating some of my exercise calories -- not all -- and will see what happens this week.

One of the things I am wondering about it this -- and it ties into the plateau problem. When you have lost, say, half the weight you intend to lose, I wonder if you should go back to your original entry and refigure your stats again, using your "new" weight? That might change things a little and enable those next pounds to come off more easily. I know that when i was omn Weight Watchers the number of "points" you could eat became fewer when you were ten pounds from goal. Just a suggestion.

I believe MFP adjusts your stats in your calorie goals, calories burned. As I lose, I notice that I get fewer calories burned for the same exercise.